SPOTLIGHT: Sweeping Culture Daily

“Straight From the Bottom” Video: Drake’s Most Self Aware Move Yet?

By Bryan Hood | Upon first watching the video for Drake‘s newest single, “Straight From the Bottom,” it’s easy to come away completely baffled. The Director X and Drake-helmed clip that went up shortly before the Grammys kicked off last night — meaning at least one Canadian was able to steal some of the boring ceremony’s shine — is one of the most over the top videos we’ve seen in a long time. Taking the song’s title fairly literally, Drake “dances” his way through progressively bigger life victories from beginning to end, starting off as a game winning youth soccer player until he’s a globetrotting superstar partying with 50 of his closest friends in a Caribbean villa. Along the way it features him being promoted to night manager at a pharmacy, flying a private jet, and best of all, gives his mom some necessary screen time. It’s a blast, but again, it’s ridiculous in nearly every way, until you consider the song it goes with, a song that clearly is Drake addressing his detractors — the ones who claim he’s not “real” enough to be taken seriously as a rapper.

As absurd and comical as the video may be, Drake knows exactly what’s going on here. This is clearly him trolling all the haters, giving them plenty of material to work with, and not caring about it one bit. You can call Drake out for hopping out of a slowly moving Bentley, dancing on a Billboard awning, or wearing ridiculous ripped jeans (seriously, dude needs a new stylist), but who cares? He knows exactly how dumb it all looks. The MC, who really is near the top of the game at this point, seems to have finally lightened up, something which definitely wasn’t the case in the over serious lead up to the phenomenal “Take Care.” Of course, it’s possible that Drake really doesn’t get it, and really does view his life in the way it’s presented here, but come on, this guy is self aware in a way we’re not used to seeing from celebrities. He knows what people think of him, and though it clearly annoys him, he’s not going to let it stop him, something that our ears are all the better for. And really, could someone completely lacking in self-awareness tweet something like this?